8th
Where are @Nyquil, @Robitussin & @Ambien?
Image Credit: SEAN THORENSON
It is almost impossible to find major brands without a presence on Twitter nowadays. Every recognizable consumer facing brand seems to have at least one handle, if not more by now. The one type of brand you will not see on Twitter is over the counter medications like Nyquil and Ambien. Because the prevalence of over the counter drug abuse is well documented, you may think that these brands would join in to help promote correct use of their product.
Unfortunately for brands like Nyquil, pharmaceutical regulations actually require that every time they see a mention of improper use of their product, they must educate the individual on proper product use. Essentially the brand would be required to educate users for every public tweet of their products misuse.
A quick search of “Nyquil sleep” on Twitter showed 20 tweets in the last three hours, over half of which promoted improper product use. Managing responses at that rate across Twitter alone would be extremely costly in terms of time and money.
The regulations make sense in many contexts, but probably not when it comes to social media. These regulations hold brands back from properly promoting safe use of their products and reaching out to people misusing their products. The job would simply be too overwhelming. Amending regulations for certain circumstances in social media should be considered to better address over-the-counter drug misuse in real time.
